


forever running wild

by x (ordinary)



Series: savages fit for a wasteland [9]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Drug Creation, Drug Use, F/M, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 21:45:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5307977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ordinary/pseuds/x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hancock's been dosing Felicia's food, and she can't figure out why he'd betray her trust like that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	forever running wild

**Author's Note:**

> For joylesseuphoria’s prompt on tumblr:
> 
> Hancock has been protectively dosing SS's rations with Rad-x because of contamination fears and that streak of self depreciation. SS catches him. Alternatively, switch it around to the more deplorable option. "I just wanted to keep these good times going." Idk. Whenever that "well if we make you a ghoul too.." Line comes up I just scream in agreement.

The old Nuka Cola factory was a haven for grime, dust, empty bottles, and-- up until ten minutes ago-- a pack of raiders. 

Now, soaked in blood and no small amount of brain matter, Felicia basked in the splendor of their victory. She stepped over corpses with easy steps, weaving her way through the carnage with a self-satisfied smirk, a predator taking pride in her string of successful slaughters. Still high off of the trailing remains of her favourite chem cocktail--a special blend of Mentats and Med-X-- Felicia laughed, wild and joyous, eyes bright. 

 "God, talk about a good time," Felicia sighed, turning to Hancock. She gripped him by the lapels and shoved him hard enough to make him stumble backwards into the guardrails, stepping in to pin him there. "You always know the right type of gift to get a girl. We should _really_ tip your informant more." 

Hancock wiped a streak of blood off her cheek, smudging it more than anything. "You know me," he said, "always aiming to please, if you know what I mean." He canted his hips forward and wiggled his brow ridges lewdly. "Nothing gets me off more than  _justice_."

"Oh my god Hancock, that's _just--_ " Felicia pulled him up for a kiss to shut him up, and it was copper tinged and full of teeth. She pulled away, and sucked on his thumb, smiling around it. "Enough. That's what it is. Stop right there, before you go on an another tirade about our...what was it? A 'glorious freak-show devoted to balancing the scales'?"

He elbowed her in the ribs, shit-eating grin on his face. "Don't knock it till you realize our reputation, sister. You're getting to be _pretty_ famous. Some of these guys even tried to run away when they realized it was the Sole Survivor coming for them."

Felicia just shook her head, not bothering to argue because she knew he was right. Never did she think this would be her fate, doing generous things for the little people and ... _caring_ about someone else's opinion to the extend she did Hancock's. Ducking down to loot another ammo cache, Felicia pulled a bobby pin out of her hair to pick the lock, hiding the smile on her scarred face. She had a feeling that he knew exactly what she was up to, but he watched her six all the same. His humming echoed throughout the factory floor, as did his rhythmic tapping of his gun against the railing.

She stood, surveying the remaining area, and jerked her thumb in the direction of a huge office and raised a thick eyebrow. "Want to raid the decaying remains of capitalism?" 

"You know it." He slipped his hand into hers and she dragged him along, eager in her desire to stick it to some long dead persona of "the man".

"There really is just something so satisfying about it, you know? Looking at what had once been opulent, now reduced to a bunch of sleeping bags and a chem station." 

She sighed at its wreckage, immediately fond. It was perfect. 

Hancock flopped back in a rusted chair, arms folded behind him, kicking his feet up onto the worn out desk. No harm in making himself at home, when everyone who had called it that was dead.

Her fingers itched, and like moth to a flame, Felicia floated towards them station, digging around in her bag for ingredients. "What the hell, right? When in Rome. We're running low anyway. You wanna cook, or do you want some of my specialties?"

"Hmmm. I'm feeling lazy, and I like your Psychojet better than anything I can come up with. I just deal it, babe. You're the scientist."

Felicia snorted. "Yeah, well. Better now than I used to be. Haven't gotten any new scars-- from chems, anyway." They shared a heated look, and all of the work at Hancock's hand tingled, the burns and the lines of his knife dragged along her skin, reminders of his love.

Coughing her throat, she turned away and set about to mixing batch after batch, even mixing up some Psycho proper. Who could have guessed that Huboflower would have a real use, and the disgusting bulbous Bloatfly glands? No wonder Hancock judged her for picking up everything, because some of it was straight up gross, even by ghoul standards. Time started to slip out of her hands, falling like grains of sand, seconds blending into minutes blending into an hour. Precise cutting, painstakingly making careful calculations to ensure the ratios were all correct.

As Felicia mixed up the final batch, she sighed, holding a test tube up to the light and lightly shaking it. "Can we talk?" she asked, voice soft.

Hancock leaned forward, snapping awake even though he'd been halfway to dozing. "Sure," he said, cautious, paranoia welling up inky-black in his chest. Felicia didn't have to be psychic to see that, but she deserved an answer. 

"Why have you been dosing me?" she asked, cold and clinical, putting the final syringe of Psycho down. She stared down at her hands, gripping the edge of the chem station too-tight. "I know it's Rad-X, John. Why? You know I maintain a certain level of it when we're out in the wasteland, just for the edge that it gives me."

Felicia waited, thinking she might get an answer. But none came, only a tense and uncomfortable silence that dragged on, and she frowned. Good intentions or otherwise, she was a grown woman who could make her own choices, and she did _not_ like to be undermined. Especially not by someone who she trusted. 

When she turned to face him, Felicia found Hancock hunched over with his head bowed, folded hands pressed to his chin. He couldn't meet her eyes. And then, raspy: "How did you know?"

A vein nearly popped in her forehead, and she closed her eyes, taking in a deep, steadying breath. Red tinged around the edges of her vision, and Felicia wrestled with the rage that always threatened to consume her, a hunger for hurt that never abated. While it had been sated temporarily, her fury reawakened it, and for once, she thought of hurting him in a way that wasn't for fun. "Even if you mix it in to my Blamco or my Cram or whatever when I'm not looking, I can still taste it. It's got this weird, powdery after taste, even if there's no grit. I can't believe you'd break my trust like that. It's small, but what's next? You gonna pep me up with mentats all the time, make me happier to help? Make me someone who I'm not at all hours of the day?"

Felicia's jaw clicked shut, and with grinding teeth she looked out the shattered window, fists clenched tight enough to draw blood against her palms. "Why aren't I good enough the way I _am_? However I choose to be?"

Hancock stood, chair clattering to the ground behind him. "Now wait a fucking minute, Leesha. That's not fucking _fair_. You have to know that's a crock of shit you're spewing. Have I ever asked you to be anything what you are, even when you're on the edge?" 

"Then  _why_ ," she snapped, lashing out and shoving him with all her strength, sending him flying into a file cabinet, her chest heaving. "Why would you do something to me against my will?"

"Because," he barked back, halfway to a bellow, "it's going to fucking  _kill you_. You're going to sacrifice the tail end of your life for a little bit of a boost now, because it makes you shoot sharper now? I wish I'd never told you, not when it's--" Hancock swallowed, jaw tense. "I just wanted-- to keep these good times going. I'm fucking immortal, Leesha. I'm immortal and you're chopping of years like they're nothing every time you willingly walk into a radiation storm and drink the water in the lakes and run your fingers over barrels, just looking for one more spike in power."

He rubbed his face. "I'm not going to apologize for that. Not when it means I could get a few more years with you."

Silence, for a time. Silence, and then she approached him, one deliberate step at a time, until Felicia was standing toe to toe with her ghoul. He was his, and she wondered when she'd turned him into something so devious, so sly. He'd never do something like this to anyone else, and it was just another thing they shared, this magnetic pull that made them want to do anything for each other, and fuck the rest. Felicia ducked her head to kiss him, soft and barely there.

"You idiot," she murmured, "I'm going ghoul for you, one day. Got a plan."

Hancock started, pushing her back by the shoulders, breath caught in his throat. "Oh, no no no. Leesha, don't _do_ this to me. Tell me you're fucking joking. You're going to get yourself killed, and then what?"

She cupped his face. " _You_ turned into a ghoul after the war, it's not impossible. There's ways to do it, and I've got a few leads. I have no intention of dying young and beautiful, Hancock. I'm going to die nigh-eternal and  _powerful_." 

"Jesus," he muttered, pulling her close, squeezing her hard enough to crush her ribs, just a little. "You're such a fucking idiot. Can't believe the shit you do." In his words, Felicia heard the unspoken  _for me._ It was evident in his shaking hands, his sharp breathing, and his kiss. 

He was hers, and one day, she'd be his-- forever.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Catch me at [my tumblr](http://lurks-beneath.me). Open for prompts!


End file.
